Bolt hands over court in home town

100m and 200m world record holder and Olympic champion Usain Bolt (back) shares the spotlight with several children from his Sherwood Content community and representatives of the Digicel Foundation during the handover ceremony of a new multipurpose court last Saturday. - photo by Claudia Gardner

Claudia Gardner, Assignment Coordinator

WESTERN BUREAU:

World 100m and 200m world record holder and Olympic champion Usain Bolt in collaboration with the Digicel Foundation officially handed over a multipurpose court to the Sherwood Content community in Trelawny last Saturday.

The sporting facility, which is located on the grounds of the Sherwood Content Community Centre, was constructed at a cost of $4 million and is expected to benefit approximately 1,500 residents from within the community and its environs. The surface of the adjacent football field on the property was also levelled under the project.

In his address during the handover ceremony, Bolt said the court was a vast improvement to the playground which in the past had been a rough grass pitch in his boyhood days growing up in Sherwood Content.

"I remember the days when this was really rough. It was like hard clay," he said. "I didn't really play much football then, because it was kind of too rough for me, so I didn't really enjoy playing a lot of football on this field. I remember at times we had to have buckets of water at the side of the field just because people used to fall and be knocked out cold."

Bolt said the multipurpose court was a part of the plans his charitable organisation, The Usain Bolt Foundation, had for future development of especially the children of Sherwood Content.

make it positive

"I will continue trying to do as much as possible for the community to make it better, to make it positive and to make it just wonderful for all the people and better for the kids because they are the future and anyway we can help them out educational-wise and physical-wise, we want to do it. It has been a long time coming, and I know they really appreciate it," he said.

"For me, it is always a joy to come home. It is so peaceful, relaxing, no stress. For me, it is a wonderful feeling to see that a variety of sports will be played in the community. We have a multipurpose court - and to see a track around it would be even better, so we could try and see if we can find any more Usain Bolts. I think they are kind of too short, but hopefully they will grow into it," he quipped.